The Technology of the Philippine Navy

Posted on February 29th, 2008. Written by Rico.

(source: hueybravo.net)

Want to know more about the technology that drives the Philippine Navy? Technograph recently spoke to a couple of officers from the armed service. What emerged was a picture of hilariously deplorable conditions.

As related by our sources, the flagship of the Philippine Navy is the BRP Rajah Humabon (PF-11), an escort destroyer of the Cannon class (pictured above) that was commissioned in the US way back in 1943. A visiting American naval officer actually said that her sister ship was already on display in a museum! Obviously, the Rajah Humabon’s technology was state-of-the-art during World War II. Now however, our seamen have to participate in naval exercises where they have to rely on manual fire control, compared to the computer-driven mechanisms of their American and Malaysian counterparts.

On said gunnery exercise, firing the guns would actually rattle the rust off the bulkheads. And in one particularly notable case, caused both electric generators of the ship to fail, leading to a blackout. Modern amenities are available, such as air-conditioning. The problem is that the luxury only reaches certain parts of the ship, and has a faulty control system. One of the officers had to sleep in a room that was frosting from the extreme cold. On another ship, the budget for food is a mere Php 40 ($1) per head for all three meals. Most alarming was the story that sailing through a typhoon was a “near-death experience.”

Despite these however, our naval officers manage. On the aforementioned naval exercise, our men actually performed well, hitting the dummy target before their “competitors” were able to do so. It’s obvious that the Philippine Navy has no chance of beating back an invasion force. But it still serves a useful role, patrolling our inner seas to keep them safe.

Hopefully, the AFP modernization program will keep practical possibilities in mind, and focus on acquiring what our men at sea can make full use of. We at Technograph were left with the impression that our Navy does well with their tremendously limited resources. Imagine what would happen if they had better equipment at their disposal.

Rico

Rico Mossesgeld is the founding editor of Technograph. Learn more about him at rico.mossesgeld.com/about.

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